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Oreocarya crassipes
Terlingua Creek cat's-eye is a rare, federally endangered perennial herb endemic to a few populations in Brewster County, Texas, growing only on gypsum-rich limestone badlands. It is very hard to grow outside its native habitat and is not normally cultivated.
Oreocarya crassipes is a rare species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common name Terlingua Creek cat's-eye. It is endemic to Brewster County, Texas, where it is known from only ten populations totaling about 5000 plants. All of the occurrences are within a ten-kilometer radius. This is a federally listed endangered species.
This plant grows only on the Fizzle Flat lentil, a small geologic formation in the Terlingua Creek watershed just north of Big Bend National Park. This lentil is a unique expanse of limestone rock which is rich in gypsum and bound with clay. The formation, which locals call a "moonscape", is pale yellow in color because of its mineral makeup and about 50 feet thick. The chalky rock breaks into plates and contains many fossils. The area is very dry and it receives full, hot sunlight. The lentil is almost totally devoid of plant life; this species and other hardy plants, such as Castilleja elongata and Lycium berberioides, occur around the edge of the lentil.
Brenda's yellow cryptantha · Osterhout's cryptantha · Oreocarya virginensis · Oreocarya cana · Basin Yellow Catseye · Oreocarya crymophila · Yellow Eyed Cryptantha · Payson Roundspike Cryptantha · Sierran Cat's Eye · Oreocarya roosiorum · Oreocarya subcapitata · Bow Nut Cryptantha
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Oreocarya crassipes by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
